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Talk:Earth 93/@comment-34521441-20180227041129/@comment-34521441-20180227201046
I think the glowing Deepsea would have to be their primary (but not only) light source. It would be the equivalent of sunlight. I'm thinking that in prehistoric times, before the advent of agriculture, dwarves discover the Deepsea and live as hunger gatherers at its edge. In the following millenia they discover agriculture and technology. They domesticate animals like boars, lizards, bats, and wolves. As their technology increases they find new ways of lighting. In early days they would probably bring great bowls of Deep Water into their homes. The water would stop glowing after a couple of days so it would have to be changed constantly. As they learn to burn coal and plants they can heat the Deep Water to keep it glowing for longer, also the fire would provide its own light. Their biggest settlements would be in caverns at the Deepsea's edge, but as their technology improves they can explore upwards and builds smaller outposts until they eventually rediscover the surface and begin trade with humans and elves, which would give them a reason to build more cities further up. A large dwarven city would probably be a set of tunnels and rooms carved into rock near/above the Deepsea, with lots of buildings constructed from the stone they excevated from the tunnels. They city would probably be surrounded by mosses, lichens, and even shrubs. The bigger cities would probably have small canals and irrigation built to bring water from the sea into the city's/farm's heart and provide cheaper lighting and more bountiful harvests. Cities further up would probably be similar systems of houses and tunnels. They might have brought up water and radioactive minerals from the Deepsea to form an artifical pond at the center of their settlements around which they would grow food in suspended fields and conduct buisiness. The advent of electrical light would make cities further from the Deepsea a lot cheaper. They would probably have a similar relationship with metals as we do with wood. Making a lot of stuff out of metal since it would be abundant while wood would be rare. They would also value precious metals for the same reason we do. Wood would probably be almost as rare and valuable as silver by weight, but would be a less effective commodity because it decays. I imagine that living underground is what made them shorter. It would allow them to sneak through narrower The oxygen underground would not be much less then above because of the algea in the Deepsea. They would probably have eyes used to lower light, and certainly eyes used to much bluer light (that's how the Deepsea glows cause physics). They would probably be a lot worse at distance running then humans because their would be little advantage to that in a narrow cave environment. However, they might trade that lower endurance for higher strength which would be useful since they would be manipulating metal and stone on a daily basis instead of wood and reeds. Question Should the dwarves also be in underground conflcit with other species? Maybe the reason for their warrior culture is that they have fought for millenia with goblins or trolls which tried to take the territory around the Deepsea from them.